J.K. Rowling Says Today Is Harry Potter’s Son’s First Day at Hogwarts

The final Harry Potter novel was full of grand battles and grander revelations, but it also featured a tiny detail that radically changed the saga’s timeline. Although J.K. Rowling’s first book in the beloved series was published in 1997 and the final book in 2007, a date on a gravestone revealed that the events of the final novel take place in 1997. That means that Harry Potter himself was born in 1980. Which means that he’s 35 in 2015. And according to Rowling herself, that makes today, September 1, 2015, the first day of school at Hogwarts for Harry’s eldest son.

In a tweet, Rowling revealed that James Sirius Potter would be reporting to King’s Cross Station today, where he would cross through the magical barrier at Platform 9 3/4 and take the Hogwarts Express to England’s famed school of witchcraft and wizardry.

For those keeping track of the Potter timeline, that means James is 11 years old right now. Which means he was born in 2004. Which means Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley were busy pumping out kids while you were still reading about their teenage adventures. According to the Harry Potter Wiki, James’ younger brother, Albus Severus Potter, is due to report for school in 2017 (making him nine years old right now and born in 2006 and so on). We don’t know the exact age of Lily Luna Potter, the youngest spawn of The Boy Who Lived and Weasley Child #7, but we expect that Rowling will let us know what’s up with her in 2020 or so.

So while Rowling and director David Yates will explore the earlier days of the wizarding world in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, we’ll have to look to Twitter for information about the here and now. And that’s okay. If the current events surrounding Harry and his family are worthy of tweets instead of novels, then we know everyone is living a happy and Voldemort-free existence.